Truly shocking ambulance wait for sons double legbreak wilson

 

A young Cavan goalkeeper was left in agony from a double leg-break for over an hour as he waited for an ambulance last weekend. Paul Wilson (22), son of Garda whistleblower and General Election candidate John, suffered an horrific break on both his right fibia and tibia during a game between Ballyhaise Celtic and Glaslough Villa at Tullacmongan just minutes from Cavan General.
Eye-witnesses say the accidental collision was “sickening” and the break itself could be heard by spectators at the Monaghan-Cavan League fixture. An off-duty paramedic at the game put Paul in a recovery position and a foil blanket was produced to cope with the shock. An ambulance was called at 5.40pm but did not arrive until 6.45pm.
Paul was taken to Cavan General Hospital to be stabilised but, because fractures are dealt with in Drogheda, he had to be moved and left Cavan at 9.30pm.

However, because there was no bed to recover from any surgery, an operation could not be carried out and he was, according to John, “left in absolute hellish agony lying on a trolley with an horrendous injury”.
Paul was operated on at 3.30pm on Monday afternoon, “almost 24 hours after it happened” and was put into recovery at 9pm later that day.
“Look, the staff and the paramedics are great but they have to operate within a system that is broken. To have one ambulance covering Cavan for the weekend is playing Russian roulette with people’s lives when you consider how vital response times are for incidents like stroke and heart attack. It’s truly shocking, just say if there was some form of complication in that time,” said the former Garda.

One onlooker said that “everyone did what they could for the lad, he’s a great 'keeper, but when we were ringing through we got through to a call centre in Cork and had to spell out Tullacmongan and start giving directions and were told that the ambulance was delayed dealing with another case”.
John hailed the ambulance paramedics as “brilliant, fantastic” and stressed that he was not speaking to “score political points”.
“Doctors and nurses are the most important people in our health services and they need to be supported, this should not be a political issue as it affects everyone. Staff are doing the best they can but it is unacceptable,” he said.
“Something must be done,” he said, suggesting a cross-party approach was needed.
“There could be a myriad of injuries on any pitch and to leave him lying there for that length of time when shock was setting in and it only a couple of minutes to Cavan General is truly shocking,” said Mr Wilson.

HSE response

The HSe told the Celt that there were other emergency calls being already being dealt with at the time of the call but that a full service was in operation.
'The National Ambulance Service (NAS) can confirm an emergency 999/112 call was received for the Cavan area at 17.40 hrs on Sunday 18th October 2015,' said a spokesperson.
'At the time the call was received a number of NAS emergency resources were engaged on other emergency calls. The nearest available emergency ambulance was dispatched to the incident and arrived at the scene at 18.44 hrs. 

'As per standard operating procedures, the call was triaged using the Advanced Medical Priority Medical Dispatch System (AMPDS). This system prioritises calls using internationally agreed procedures and protocols. This ensures that life threatening and potentially life threatening calls receive an appropriate and timely response.
'The NAS can confirm there were full resources on duty in the Cavan area, two emergency ambulances in Cavan Town and one emergency ambulance in Virginia on Sunday, October 18.'